A milk-sharing economy allows placental mammals to overcome their metabolic limits.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Cerrito P
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8915790 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
A milk-sharing economy allows placental mammals to overcome their metabolic limits.
Cerrito Paola P Spear Jeffrey K JK
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20220301 10
SignificanceHere, we demonstrate that a naturally evolving behavior (allonursing) has greater effect on reproductive power (mass per unit of time) and output (litter mass at birth) than does artificial selection (domestication). Additionally, we demonstrate the importance of resource optimization afforded by sociality (rather than resource abundance per se) in shaping a species' life history profile and its ability to overcome its own physiological constraints. ...[more]
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